A new study by the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia reveals that people may be more likely to lie over text message conversations than when they're speaking face to face.

In the study, researchers tasked 170 students to role-play stock market scenarios where one set of students were brokers and the others buyers. The brokers were given financial incentive to sell more stock and each were allowed four different types of communication. When the brokers used text messages, they were more likely to lie about the status of the of stocks they were pushing.

It's not all that surprising that people would be more comfortable lying in a text message, but if you're conducting important business, you should stick with face-to-face conversations or video chat to better ensure you're not being duped. The full study will be available in the March issue of the Journal of Business Ethics. Photo by San Francisco Foghorn.